Philips PUS7101 Review: A TV with some personality issues

Tech Week Score
3.0
- Michail Yahontov

The Philips PUS7000 TV lineup includes the 65PUS7101, 55PUS7101, 55PUS7100 49PUS7100, 49PUS7150 models. Some screen sizes may not be available depending on the delivery. We will not give the overall dimensions in the characteristics of the Philips 7000 – they will, of course, be different.

But the general characteristics of these models are the same, with the exception of some points, we will talk about them below. Let’s try to figure it out on the example of the Philips 55PUS7101 TV review, what’s new in the 7000 Philips line.

What’s new in PUS7101

The 55PUS7101 TV is a 55 inch model that uses 4K resolution. After a software update, if the distributor has not done so yet, full HDR support appears. Its Smart TV platform is powered by Android giant Google.

Philips 7000 series overview

The design of the TV is great, and its 3-way Philips Ambilight backlit to accompany any content. The price category for a 55-inch screen is about 90,000 dollars. But as they say, appearances can be deceiving, and some imperfections in image quality can be surprising.

Design and characteristics

55PUS7101 TV is the winner of the Design Award 2016, now let’s try to figure it out. Its neat silver bezel around the screen looks attractive and is finished in a matte finish. The TV stand is designed in the same style as the frame. The overall design gives the impression of lightness, but at the same time reliability of the structure.

Connections

The 55PUS7101 TV stands out for its excellent interface capabilities, for example, four HDMI interfaces and three USB connectors in addition to the possibility of wired or wireless Internet connection. As expected, the two HDMI connectors fully support HDCP 2.2 recording encryption.

It is possible through these interfaces to connect an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, such as the Panasonic DMP-UB900 . It’s worth noting that Philips HDR connected devices may not initially display in 4K resolution. Check if there is a new software update for your TV model. If there is one, update it.

Main features 55PUS7101

• 55-inch diagonal screen, LCD matrix type with Edge LED backlighting.
• Panel type IPS.
• Screen resolution 4K (UHD) in normal mode.
• Direct support for HDR after software update.
• Android platform as Smart TV.
• Price range 99,990 dollars.

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Philips Ambilight

Turn on your TV and its Philips Ambilight technology transforms the picture on the screen with backlighting. For those who are not familiar with Ambilight technology, let’s make a short comment – this is a certain number of LEDs located on three sides of the TV screen. Their light is emitted onto the surface behind the TV.

LEDs emit light as if continuing the image on the screen, repeating the colors of the edges of the image with amazing accuracy. If you are not satisfied with the automatic light distribution, that is, the mode of moderate lighting or this function can be completely turned off.

Describing this technology, it is very difficult to convey an impression on paper. You need to see it once. In short, this backlighting feature can fantastically enhance your immersive experience, or immerse you in the content you are playing. You will not find this on other TVs.

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Updating

A lot of factory “jambs” are corrected by the most recent TV firmware. Nevertheless, such manipulations with a new TV set the buyer perplexed – why release a “raw” TV, and then try to fix at the program level what should not be, in principle, because it should be done at the factory. Many 2015 4K TVs were able to play the 4K content of last year’s Ultra HD players right away.

This is confirmed by users who purchased the 7000 model immediately after it hit the shelves. Raw TVs refused to immediately play HDR content, many were waiting for the release of the next version of the software that solves this problem. Once again, we note that Philips PUS7000 should be checked immediately after purchase to see if there is an update.

Install it right away if possible. Once HDR support arrives, viewing will be much more comfortable. HDR-enabled external devices will simply transform. 55PUS7101 TV has become comfortable.

Applications

The smart functions in the 55PUS7101 are handled by the Android TV operating system. In terms of the number of additional applications installed, this is great. But the system looks pretty bare from the factory. Many users will not argue that this is bad, because in an everyday situation, few people will install applications in huge batches.

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Most users appreciate the possibility of how any application will look on a huge screen and whether it is worth installing on a TV. Many useless applications have been installed from the factory, but for some reason the manufacturer missed some important ones. First of all, there is no Amazon Video and IPTV Player – why you can’t install it right away is unclear.

It’s a fixable thing – we go, pick it up and set it up on our own. Do the same with the Netflix 4K, Sky News and BBC iPlayer apps if needed. Here you need to make a digression and recommend to the manufacturer: turn on the Sony TV at least once and copy the required applications “by default” into your models.

Philips 55PUS7101 review (Philips 7000 series)

Sound system

Although the 55PUS7101 has a thin bezel around the screen, the sound quality offers decent performance. Most importantly, there is a woofer that reproduces low frequencies down the TV.

In general, the TV speaker system can be assessed as quite high quality. To most, it may seem that excessively loud sound at maximum levels hits the ears. But this is better than reproducing only midrange signals in cheaper models. The sound of the voice or musical compositions is clear, you can put a bold plus under this item.

Treble tones complement the richness of the audio system, but not enough to cut the ear. In general, the 55PUS7101 sound system can be considered a masterpiece – indeed, the manufacturer paid enough attention to this parameter in combination with the price of the TV.

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Micro Dimming Pro

The 55PUS7101’s image processing technology is built around a standard UHD LCD panel, and is based on Edge LED edge illumination. The name of the new backlight changed and became known as “Micro Dimming Pro”, but this did not make the local dimming better or work worse. The system divides the screen into a small number of zones, then the backlight is analyzed and adjusted using built-in light sensors.

It is also worth noting that the extended color gamma processing technology and HDR scaling have been applied to enable playback of HDR content. The 55PUS7101 additionally processes the image using the Pixel Precise Ultra HD system.

In conclusion, the great picture is generally handled by a 4-core processor, so Android TV handles all the content. Please note that Philips shares the opinion of Samsung and this model lacks 3D support, but not for the entire Philips 7000 line. More on that below.

Settings 55PUS7101

The 55PUS7101 is equipped with excellent tools for adjusting the picture, even the advanced Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) has appreciated it. ISF professionals noted that they did not observe such fine and high-quality image calibration adjustments in other models. Color, gamma, white balance and overall control over all the numerous details of the image are subject to adjustment.

In fact, for a simple user there are a certain number of options for the best settings for certain scenes – you don’t need to dig for a long time and make a setting for each possible item. Everything is reduced to certain schemes. If you are an advanced user of 55PUS7101, and are not afraid to spend your time optimizing the image “for yourself”, then please.

In our opinion, the settings should start with disabling all noise reduction systems when viewing 4K images. Set the motion processing level to a middle position to try to resolve the blurring problem. Set the contrast settings to the “standard” mode. View the image, and then, if you do not like something, “twist” the parameters.

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We recommend using Ambilight, but not at full level, but starting at medium. Brightness and responsiveness should not be set too aggressively, with this setting, the backlight is likely to distract you from your viewing.

Image quality

Unfortunately, the PUS7101 uses an IPS LCD panel. Most regular readers will know that these panels have normal contrast and color reproduction and have a wider viewing angle than VA LCD panels, but the black levels are not what they would like. We considered this issue even before there were increased brightness requirements for HDR.

But, apparently, this TV has a certain margin. The main problem is black levels. The combination of IPS panel with edge dimming produces less than ideal black depth. As a result, in dark scenes, there is a low contrast of the image, the grayscale is poor.

The inability of the image to provide convincing black results in the image looking artificial. Dark color through the main: the red, green and blue spectrum looks unconvincing due to the influence of “grayness”, and the lack of deep black does not keep up with the dynamics of the image.

The backlight of the 55PUS7101 TV sometimes suffers from clouded colors, sometimes some parts look brighter than necessary. Some images take on a slightly yellowish tone, while others tend to reproduce bluer tones. Remember that you shouldn’t use the backlight at its maximum level – try setting its level to the middle position and check.

Verdict

So to summarize – the 55PUS7101 TV ruins the desire to enjoy HDR content due to problems with black levels. But there are other points that are perplexing. First, the playback of Ultra HD content. Still images (or photographs) look amazing. But if we talk about dynamic scenes, then the manufacturer’s imperfections are noticeable.

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Philips has named the more efficient dynamic scene processing system “Perfect Natural Motion”, which should ensure that there is no jitter or blur in the image. But do not set this item in the settings more than the average value. Only in this (or lower) position can you somehow remove the blurred image.

However, even with these settings, side effects such as flickering halos around moving objects or a one-time increase in image grain are noticeable. At the same time, colors appear vivid and rich when reproducing vivid scenes.

In fact, the PUS7101 TV is a standard home device that needs to deliver video content with a great approach to color reproduction. Some manufacturers do not even have this in the specifications of their models. But for now, color fidelity is the main characteristic of today’s 4K TVs.

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